Louie's Reserve Scotch Ale | Lake Louie Brewery Company

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User Ratings & Reviews

A decent Scotch, care of Derek. Lightbrown colour with a white head, lts of lace. Smooth drinking, creamy mouthfeel.Some sourness and then a seet finish.I rank this a bit above average for a style that I often don't like.Aroma draws me in and has a bit of smoke.

Starting off by saying I think it might be a bad bottle. The beer poured out as a muddy brown color with a quick fading cream colored head on top. The smell of the beer is funky... It should be sweet and malty, smells like it was aged in oak or something. Just too funky for a Scotch Ale in my opinion. The taste is tart, very sour off the first sip. The finish is more of the malty scotch ale shining through. The mouthfeel is decent, a little thin for the style and some sharp carbonation. Overall this beer would probably be good I just think something got infected here. Would be willing to try it again in the future with hopes of a better outcome.

Served cold into a nonic half-pint and allowed to come to temperature over the course of consumption. Expectations are above average given the brewery and style; I've enjoyed their other Scotch ales. Reviewed ive as a Scotch ale per the label.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: About 3-4cm wide. Khaki colour. Even consistency. Soft looking. Fluffy and frothy. Retention is good - about 5 minutes. Leaves no lacing as it recedes.

BODY: Deep glowing amber. No yeast can be seen within. Translucent and semitransparent.

It's a nice looking Scotch ale, but nothing about it is unique or special compared to other beers in the style. Generally appealing, and seemingly well carbonated.

TASTE: Far too sweet, with buttery diacetyl off-flavour dominating the aroma and overwhelming the drinker. Overbearing, with none of the trademarks of a good Scotch ale. Imbalanced and frankly a bit off-putting. Depth of flavour is subpar. Flavour duration and intensity are average. Poorly built.

Did I get a bottle that's off? This is not likable, and doesn't fit within style conventions.

OVERALL: A problematic attempt at a Scotch ale which suffers from diacetyl off-flavour to such extent this could be part of an off-flavour detection kit. It's tough to drink based on its low quality, and I have to wonder if some of the bottles are tainted and others aren't based on its current 91 rating. Something really went wrong here, but it's not horrible - just way off the mark and heavy on the butter.

Diacetyl bomb. All the comments about it being buttery, butterscotch ... are true. Fake, artificial butter flavor. Far too much fruity flavor for a scotch ale as well. Perhaps I got a bad bottle but this was not good.

Smell: Toasty caramel malts, but I'm left wanting an integral peat character. What gives? I never pick up much in the way of peat, be it the aroma or flavor.

Taste: Toasty caramel maltiness with a middling sweetness. Sip of frothed fruit juices accompanied by a slight, slightly displeasing tartness. Some hop bitterness can't manage to shake the tartness from the taste. Picks up an odd astringency near the end. Finishes dry. Bleh.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation.

Drinkability: I've had a few bottles of this over the years and it's always the same story. A pretty poor offering and certainly does not come to mind when thinking on a good scotch ale. PASS.

Burnt butterscotch suffused with red. The toffee colored cap is whipped creamy with a surprising retention given its apparent airiness. A respectable amount of bubble bath-like foam finds the glass, but would look better and last longer if it was more substantial.

The nose is redolent of (and dominated by) dark butterscotch. Brown sugar crusted figs and dates, along with a tendril or two of smoke, play second fiddle. It smells like the beer will be both tangy and sweet. Oh yeah... and as delicious as all get out.

Louie's Reserve is everything I'd hoped for after drinking Warped Speed. I can't call up too many details about the smaller beer, but this one seems sweeter, more caramel malty and more lush. Can't forget higher in alcohol since the 9.0% isn't completely masked. It's masked well enough though.

Each mouthful delivers a dizzying blast of flavors that includes dark butterscotch (and Scotch whisky), dark toffee, brown sugar, cocoa and sourish peat smoke. Now *this* is what a wee heavy should taste like. There are plenty of Scottish brewers who don't brew Scotch ales this Scottish in character. I didn't think it was possible, but complexity increases as the beer warms.

The mouthfeel is pure, hedonistic pleasure. Time fixes a slightly too bubblicious nature right out of the gate, leaving a gloriously lush beer that is the very definition of silky smooth. I'm trying to slow down since the ABV is beginning to do a number on coherent sentence formation, but it's hard to keep from grabbing the glass again and again.

Louie's Reserve Strong Scotch Ale (as the neck label reads) is the best beer that I've ever had from what I think is the best brewer in the great state of Wisconsin. It's everything I want in a wee heavy and then some. If I was a Badger, I'd buy this stuff by case whenever the brewery decided to grace us with a batch.

I was really excited to get to try this one. There was a lot of hype around it, and I watched as it climbed the ranks of the BA top 100 over and over again. I just had to get my hands on a bottle of this one, but from where? Well I was lucky enough to be able to score a bottle of this one in a trade a while back and let it sit in my cellar for a few weeks before bringing it out to get ready to try it. After sitting in the fridge for a few weeks, it was ready to go tonight. Took it out and let it warm up to around 50 degrees before serving this nice twelve ounce bottle into a Lafayette Brewing Pint Glass.

A - Poured a very deep dark brown color, very full looking with the color of dark mud or old wood. Deep hazelnut like color with a very thick almost opaque look to it. Lots of cloudiness and haze built into it as well, really giving it that full look. A nice two finger high head of tan colored lace rose up above the glass upon the first pour. Very quick fade on this one left behind essentially nothing but a thin lace veil across the top and some light bubbles toward the side of the glass. Some light silky side glass lace became apparent when you swirled I a little in the glass. No visible carbonation was apparent. Overall not a bad appearance for a scotch ale.

S - The aroma was rather interesting I have to admit, A little different then I was expecting it to, having had a few scotch ales in the last week. Started out quite mellow with big notes of caramel and toffee coming right up front. No hiding the big malts in this one what so ever. Lots of brown sugar now coming through as well. Something very musty in here as well, bready malts perhaps, maybe butterscotch. A thick aroma, but at the same time, very mellow and light. Quite different to be honest. There was a hint of some coffee beans in here as well, perhaps the lightest touch of bourbon in the alcohol department. Overall not bad at all, I have smelled better, but the profile had sufficient depth to keep me interested.

T - The flavor to me, I have to be honest seemed a tad bit underwhelming to me. It was good and all, don't get me wrong, I had just expected that for something rated higher then any other Scotch Ale on the board that it would really be draw dropping, however for me it just was not. The first flavor to come across was a muted caramel, mixed in with a less then subtle musty bread like taste. It was just that moldy weird flavor I really just do not care for in the slightest. Up next was a deep sweet flavor, hints of vanilla, butterscotch and several types of earthy grain, were all very well represented. However there was just no good follow through for me, nothing that really capped it and said this was great, nothing to really set it apart. No hint of alcohol in this one what so ever which was nice. The finish again came off as somewhat muted and unfinished, really not earth shattering in any way. Drawn out for a short time, were hints of caramel and grass, but these quickly faded into the sugar and were never to be seen from again.

M - The feel on this one was decent enough. A nice medium bodied ale, that did not come off too thin or watery, however just really did not have the big full feel I would have looked for. This was mostly due to the lack of carbonation, which was very evident and to be honest a shame as it really distracted here, making it come off somewhat dull.

D - The 9% ABV was nowhere to be seen here at all. I honestly thought it was around 6 until I looked it up. It definitely was smooth and creamy, but the only distraction was in the flavor, which was just not up my alley what so ever. I still could have put down more then one with ease, but still not the greatest thing in the world here,

Overall I was completely under whelmed by this one. I was hoping that this was going to be some really great Scotch ale the likes of which I had not seen before, however this was just not the case. It was dull , muted, and just really just did not taste anywhere near what I would have liked it to. I don't think I would try this one again, unless I just had a bad bottle, but whatever there are much better representations of the style out there to be found, I don't really think this one is worth the hype.

Color is a tawny russet brown, with transparent reddish bottom and sides, and sporting a small, though sure, creamy head atop.
Aroma is dank and smoky on first sniff...we must go in deeper...smoked salmon, definitely...burnt, even crispy, dark, moist, swampy...I may run out of clear and understandable signifiers, but this much must be clear: I like it, and could keep on sniffing it all the live-long day!
Thick mouthfeel, rich, warm, substantial, chewy, chocolatey...amazing! Has a spectacular mellowing effect, with a remarkable assemblage of flavors that swim in the senses, and stun one with the complexity, soothing and also stimulating. A wonderfrul warmth, luxuriating...this is an awesome nightcap, for the four-poster calls me...although I don't want to end my association with this awesome ale!
Further flavor finally crytallize themselves in my unsorted mind: plums, figs, a touch of tobacco, a hint of cherries. Finish is long, lasting, luscious.
Alcohol feels a bit forward, but nothing I can't handle...maybe?
This is absolutely brilliant stuff, and stands in ably for a barleywine as a last-beer-of the-night, or happy reward when you've been good...I hope I've been good? Huge thanks to Mr. Cokes for sending along this 22oz. sample! A great beer sent by a great BA!

Poured into a chalice a grapey color, nice carbonation, nice small creamy tan head, leaves some sticky lacing. The nose is malty, slightly oaky, cherries, figs, raisins, and some caramel. The taste is malty/oaky, nice presents of dark fruit, some tanginess, nice touch of caramel. The finish is dry. Medium body, a complex brew. Very drinkable, I/you could drink a few of these before you know it, easily.

Picked up a sixer of this one at Steve's in Madison - for some reason I never see Lake Louie in Milwaukee. Served in a Leinenkugel's pint glass.

A - Pours with a finger of foam that settles to a thin cap, leaving behind splotchy lace. Transparent cherry brown color.

S - Just to be clear - this isn't barrel aged. It's just a higher-gravity version of Warped Speed. Fruity tropical vibe to the malt, along with some caramel, treacle, and cotton candy alongside some yeasty bread notes. Didn't realize this was 9% - it's very well hidden.

T - Again, heavy on caramel and bready malt, with a hefty dose of lightly roasted malts and burnt sugars. Perhaps a faint hint of smoke in there as well.

M - Active carbonation keeps it from getting heavy or cloying. Sticky medium body, and a touch of warmth that builds as time goes on.

D - This is an above-average Scotch Ale that doesn't have any major flaws, but doesn't really blow my mind either (although it's not one of my favorite styles, so I'm curious what it would take to do so). It's not very heavy in peat or smoke but otherwise it's quite true to style. Definitely recommended if you're into this type of brew.

from buckeyenation, thanks!
Pours a hazy copper/dark caramel color. Slight brown head. Aroma contains sweet malt, light caramel, some toffee and bit of spice/hops.
Tastes sweet, with a bit of a bite. Malt is heavy, but delicious. Not as sweet as I assumed it would be. Bite at the end levels everything off. Dried black fruits seem to overarching flavor.
A bit sweet for me, but a good brew.

It pours from 12 oz bottle a hazy rusty brown with a 1 finger head of foam. It shrinks after a few minutes but there's still a fine layer(with god lacing) near the end of the session.

The smell is of roasted and caramel malt along with some notes of chocolate and just a wee bit of alcohol.

The taste has the caramel malt up front and gives me a nice sweet flavour. Now I get a bit of chocolate, big toffee, some smoke(nicely done) and some roasted malt. There's also some hops hiding in the background that I find more prevelent in the finish. Yum. The alcohol is just noticeable after the swallow but doesn't interfere with the flavour at all.

The mouthfeel is medium bordering on heavy and feels silky smooth. Yum again. That toffee is really make this one very drinkable given the alcohol content. I'm really happy that I got to try this Wee Heavy as it's a darn good one!

Thanks to kmpitz2 for this
Appears a hazy mahogany with a small white head.
Smell is of cocoa, smokey malts, and rich caramel.
Taste is of the same aromas with some mild hoppiness in the background.
Mouthfeel is medium bodied and syrupy. Not bad at all.